Granny says dem Hezbollah is just a buncha terrorists...We can hit all of Israel in future war: HezbollahNov 25, 2012, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel on Sunday that thousands of rockets would rain down on Tel Aviv and cities across the Jewish state if it attacked Lebanon.

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Speaking four days after the ceasefire which ended a week of conflict between Israel and the Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza, Nasrallah said Hezbollah's response to any attack would dwarf the rocket fire launched from Palestinian territories. "Israel, which was shaken by a handful of Fajr-5 rockets during eight days — how would it cope with thousands of rockets which would fall on Tel Aviv and other (cities) ... if it attacked Lebanon?" Nasrallah said. The Fajr-5s, with a range of 75km (45 miles) — able to strike Tel Aviv or Jerusalem — and 175kg (386 lb) warheads, are the most powerful and long-range rockets to have been fired from Gaza.

But Hezbollah, which fought Israel to a standstill in a 34-day war six years ago, says it has been re-arming since then and has a far deadlier arsenal than Hamas. Nasrallah has said Hezbollah could kill tens of thousands of people and strike anywhere inside Israel if hostilities break out again. "If the confrontation with the Gaza Strip ... had a range of 40 to 70 km, the battle with us will range over the whole of occupied Palestine — from the Lebanese border to the Jordanian border, to the Red Sea," Nasrallah said.

Hezbollah could hit targets "from Kiryat Shmona — and let the Israelis listen carefully — from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat", he said, referring to Israeli's northernmost town on the Lebanese border to the Red Sea port 290 miles further south. The movement has warned that any Israeli attack against the nuclear facilities of its patron Iran, which has armed and funded the Lebanese Shia Muslim militant group, would inflame the Middle East — though it has not specified its own response.

In a move it said showed it could penetrate deep inside Israeli defences, it flew a drone over Israel last month. The drone was shot down after flying 25 miles into southern Israel. Israel says its Iron Dome missile defence system knocked out 90 per cent of the rockets fired from Gaza which were on course to hit populated areas.

Iran, Hezbollah's hand seen in terror attacks...Report: Iran, Hezbollah terror threat risingJan 30,`13 WASHINGTON -- Iran's elite Quds Force and Hezbollah militants are learning from a series of botched terror attacks over the past two years and pose a growing threat to the U.S. and other Western targets as well as Israel, a prominent counterterrorism expert says.

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Operating both independently and together, the militant groups are escalating their activities around the world, fueling worries in the U.S. that they increasingly have the ability and the willingness to attack the U.S., according to a report by Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Studies. His report points to two attacks last year - one successful and one foiled by U.S. authorities - as indications that the militants are adapting and are determined to take revenge on the West for efforts to disrupt Tehran's nuclear program and other perceived offenses.

The report's conclusions expand on comments late last year from U.S. terrorism officials who told Congress that the Quds Force and Hezbollah, which often coordinate efforts, have become "a significant source of concern" for the U.S. The Quds Force is an elite wing of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, the defenders of Iran's ruling clerics and their hold on power. The report comes amid ongoing tensions between Iran and the West, including a persistent stalemate over scheduling six-party talks on Tehran's nuclear program and anger over reports that the U.S. and Israel were behind the Stuxnet computer attack that forced the temporary shutdown of thousands of centrifuges at an Iranian nuclear facility in 2010.

More than 20 terror attacks by Hezbollah or Quds Force operatives were thwarted around the world between May 2011 and July 2012, with nine coming in the first nine months of 2012, Levitt said in the report. "What is particularly striking is how amateurish the actions of both organizations have been: Targets were poorly chosen and assaults carried out with gross incompetence," Levitt said in the report. "But as the groups brush off the cobwebs and professionalize their operations, this sloppy tradecraft could quickly be replaced by operational success."

Levitt is a senior fellow and director of the Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. From 2005 to early 2007, he served as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the Treasury Department. The two key attacks, the report said, include the plot by a Texas man to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States. Manssor Arbabsiar, a U.S. citizen with an Iranian passport, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and murder-for-hire last October and told the court that Iranian military officials were involved in the planning. Iran has denied that link.

Hezbollah armory found in Nigeria...Nigeria: Hezbollah armoury discovered in Kano city30 May 2013 > An armoury belonging to the Lebanese group Hezbollah has been discovered in northern Nigeria, the West African nation's army and spy agency has said.

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Three Lebanese nationals have been arrested, an army spokesman, Brig Gen Ilyasu Isa Abba, said. The cache, including rifles, anti-tank weapons and an RPG, were found in a warehouse in the city of Kano, he said. Nigeria's State Security Service said they were intended for use against "Israeli and Western interests". "This is the handwork of Hezbollah," Bassey Ettang, director of the State Security Service in Kano said. "What has just been discovered is a cell of Hezbollah and what you have seen here is a Hezbollah armoury," he told journalists in Kano on Thursday.

Brig Gen Ilyasu Isa Abba said 11 anti-tank weapons, four anti-tank mines, a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) and 21 RPG missiles, 17 AK-47s, two sub-machine guns and 76 grenades had been amongst the weapons found. The Lebanese owner of the warehouse where "the weapons of mass destruction" had been stored in sawdust was out of the country, he said There is a large business Lebanese community in Kano city, the commercial hub of in northern Nigeria. Kano and north-eastern Nigeria has suffered multiple attacks in the last three years since the home-grown Islamist militant group Boko Haram launched an insurgency.

Mr Ettang added: "You can also be sure that if a group like this is existing then it may even lend support to some of the local terrorists we have on the ground." Hezbollah is a Shia military and political movement based in Lebanon considered by the US to be a terrorist organisation. Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden", says its quest is to overthrow the Nigerian government and create an Islamic state. There has been growing concern that Boko Haram could be receiving backing from al-Qaeda-linked militants in other countries.

See also:Nigeria Arrests Lebanese Suspected of Hezbollah Ties May 30, 2013 — Nigerian authorities said on Thursday they had arrested three Lebanese in northern Nigeria on suspicion of being members of Hezbollah and that a raid on one of their residences had revealed a stash of heavy weapons.

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The three suspects were arrested between May 16 and May 28 in the north's biggest city Kano, the city's military spokesman Captain Ikedichi Iweha said in a statement. All had admitted to being members of Hezbollah under questioning. A raid on the residence of one of the Lebanese had uncovered 11 60mm anti-tank weapons, four anti-tank landmines, two rounds of ammunition for a 122mm artillery gun, 21 rocket-propelled grenades, seventeen AK-47s with more than 11,000 bullets and some dynamite, he said. “The arms and ammunition were targeted at facilities of Israel and Western interest in Nigeria,” Iweha said, but did not elaborate.

Separately, five fighters from Chad and two from Niger were arrested among insurgents fleeing a two-week-old offensive against Islamist sect Boko Haram in the northeast, as they tried to cross the border into Chad, Nigeria's defense spokesman Brigadier General Chris Olukolade said in a statement. Authorities believe there has been a growing involvement of al-Qaida-linked foreign jihadists in Nigeria's insurgency. The secret service detained the first suspect, Mustapha Fawaz, on May 16 at his supermarket in Kano. His interrogation led to other suspects, including Abdullah Tahini, who was later arrested at Kano airport with $60,000 in undeclared cash.

Weapons Stash

The third, Talal Roda, a Nigerian and Lebanese citizen, was arrested on Sunday at the house where the weapons were found two days later. “The search team uncovered an underground bunker in the master bedroom where a large quantity of assorted weapons of different types and caliber were recovered,” Iweha said. “All those arrested have confessed to have undergone Hezbollah terrorist training.” The possibility of a link with Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram, which Nigerian forces are battling in a major offensive in the northeast, was being investigated, Iweha said at a news conference. An alliance between Salafist Sunni Muslim Boko Haram and Shi'ite Hezbollah would be unusual, and there has never previously been evidence of such a link.

Though most Nigerian Muslims are Sunni, there are several thousand Shi'ite Nigerians, a legacy of Muslim radical Ibrahim Zakzaky's preachings since the 1980s. Zakzaky still leads Nigeria's main Shi'ite movement and has campaigned for an Islamic government and stricter adherence to sharia law. Iweha declined to say if any link to Zakzaky was being investigated, and his movement is currently seen as largely peaceful. A Nigerian court sentenced an alleged member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and a Nigerian accomplice to five years in prison this month over an illegal shipment of mortars and rockets seized in the main port of Lagos in 2010.

Hezbollah fueling sectarian sentiment across the volatile region...Hezbollah Provokes Sunni Anger by Joining Syrian ConflictJune 7, 2013 – Hezbollah has hailed the retaking of a strategic rebel stronghold in Syria as a blow to the U.S. and Israel, but behind the bluster, the Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist group has taken a huge gamble in providing open and substantial military support to the Assad regime, fueling sectarian sentiment across the volatile region.

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In the process of helping President Bashar Assad recapture the town of al-Qusayr, Iranian-backed Hezbollah has attracted the anger of Arabs including the leaders of the Gulf states, prominent Sunni sheikhs and commentators, and radical jihadists, including those affiliated with al-Qaeda. Al-Qusayr fell to Hezbollah-backed Syrian forces on Wednesday after weeks of fierce fighting. The town near the Lebanese border had been controlled by rebels for more than a year. Amid celebrations in Hezbollah’s support base in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem hailed the outcome as a victory over the “America-Israeli scheme.”

The picture looked very different in the Gulf, however, where the governments of the six Gulf states early this week agreed to blacklist Hezbollah and take measures against it. Bahrain’s foreign minister told reporters that all six countries – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait – “are convinced that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization.” Both within and beyond Syria’s borders, the conflict is both spotlighting and evidently widening the Sunni-Shi’ite divide that dates back to a succession rift after the death of Mohammed in the seventh century. Hezbollah and its patron, Iran, are Shi’ite and Assad belongs to the Alawite sect of Shi’ite Islam. U.S. officials said Iranian and Iraqi Shi’ites were also involved in the fighting in al-Qusayr.

Arrayed against the Assad regime and its Shi’ite allies are mostly Sunni rebel groups, among them Salafist jihadists including the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front. The opposition is supported by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – all Sunni countries. In a speech almost two weeks ago, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah lashed out against jihadists including al-Qaeda, whom he said were “dominating” the anti-Assad opposition. Jihadists subsequently answered the challenge. A leader of the Jordanian Salafist movement, Mohammed Shalabi, told the al-Hayat newspaper this week that fighting Hezbollah was now a top priority for his group, which he characterized as closely allied to the al-Nusra Front. A group of Egyptian Sunni radicals, including the brother of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, also issued a call for Sunnis everywhere to take up arms against Hezbollah and its allies.

Last weekend prominent Sunni scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi – a Qatar-based Egyptian who is president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars and regarded as the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader – said every Muslim trained and capable of fighting should make himself available for jihad against Assad and Hezbollah. Addressing a rally in Doha, Qaradawi raised the sectarian rhetoric to a new level by labeling Hezbollah (which means Party of Allah), the “Party of Satan.” “The leader of the party of Satan comes to fight the Sunnis,” he was quoted as saying, adding that Iran wants “continued massacres to kill Sunnis.” “Iran is pushing forward arms and men, so why do we stand idle?”

Lebanon Moves To Avoid Syria War Spillover June 07, 2013 — The military command issued a strong warning Friday that Lebanese should be “wary of plots” that could turn the nation into a battlefield like next door in Syria.

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“In recent days, some groups have seemed determined to stoke security tensions against the backdrop of the political divisions in Lebanon over military developments in Syria,” the command said in an unusually blunt statement. Military commanders have been “trying for several months to work firmly, determinedly and patiently to prevent Lebanon being turned into a battlefield for regional conflicts and to prevent any spillover of the events in Syria,” the command said. The military then urged Lebanese “to express their political views on events in Lebanon and Syria by peaceful and democratic means, and not to be driven by groups wanting to use violence as a means to achieve their ends".

The warning came as the French government, through its ambassador, urged all Lebanese to abide by the self-avowed “dissociation policy” set out in 2012 by the nation’s key sectarian leaders. The policy was designed to keep Lebanon neutral in the Syrian civil war and aloof from the strife raging next door. French Ambassador Patrice Paoli stressed to a delegation from the Maronite Christian community the need for the Lebanon to avoid getting entangled in the Syrian crisis. The Lebanese government officially is neutral in Syria’s civil war, but the country’s militant Shia movement, Hezbollah, has become deeply involved in the fighting. Hezbollah is anxious to prevent the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a longtime patron of the group and ally of its main paymaster and arms supplier, Iran.

Lebanon’s official neutrality is challenged

On Wednesday, as a result of Hezbollah’s increased military intervention, Syrian government forces were able to deal a sharp blow to mainly Sunni Muslim rebels by retaking the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanon frontier. Hezbollah fighters were considered key in the government victory. But Lebanon’s Sunni leaders reacted with fury at Hezbollah’s actions and called for a jihad against the Shia movement. A day before Qusair fell, General Selim Idriss, leader of the main rebel umbrella group, the Free Syrian Army, warned that his fighters were prepared to take the conflict into Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah militiamen. Hezbollah, he said, was “invading” Syria and Lebanon was doing nothing to stop them. Rocket attacks on Hezbollah villages in the Bekaa Valley this week suggests that Syrian rebels or their Lebanese supporters were making good on Idriss’ threat.